The manual squeezing out of the content of flexible tubes is an every-day operation carried out nearly in every household, a representative example being the squeezing out of a desired quantity of toothpaste from a flexible metal or plastic tube. Other examples are tubes containing various cosmetic products, hair treating preparations, shoe cream, etc. Further examples are tubes containing pasty food products like mayonnaise, ketchup, etc. One of the problems in this connection is the backward flow of the remaining content of the tube, another is that it is difficult to squeeze out the entire content of the tube, causing waste.
Various auxiliary devices are known, such as, for example, the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,082, which has a constant width gap through which the tube is moved, and which is thus not fully effective in squeezing out the entire content of the tube. This prior art device has a constant gap through which the thick rear end of the tube is passed, or it has such a narrow end that the rear end of the tube has to be cut off before insertion. This is apt to cause spilling of the tube content.
Another device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,787. U.S. Pat. No. 2,390,314 discloses a device comprising two pressure plates, which may be slit to form tongues, said pressure plates are distanced and attached to a trough, a slot being cut in the bottom of said trough, through which slot the collapsed part of the tube may pass.
German published Application No. 33,18,690 discloses a device comprising, attached to holder part, a rigid clamping jaw and a rigid movable pressure plate, held together by two side pieces and a front piece, said clamping jaw and pressure plate defining a slot through which the collapsed part of the tube passes. In one embodiment said pressure plate can be swiveled about an axis and returned by a separate spring and in a second embodiment it is elastically connected by an adhesively attached elastomeric plate to said front piece. This device is not unitary, but composed of a number of separate parts.
British Patent Specification No. 1,291,228 discloses a a collapsible tube carrying a frame which can be slid along the tube towards the open end, with portions of the frame urging the opposite walls of the tube towards each other, forcing out the content of the tube.
Israel Patent No. 95,667 discloses device for removing the content of a flexible tube which comprises an integral structure including two elongated members at least one of which is resilient, connected by a frame at both pairs of corresponding ends thereof or at one pair of corresponding ends thereof. This device has several drawbacks which will be discussed hereafter in connection with the device of the present invention.
The prior art devices are not completely efficient as they do not remove essentially the entire content of the tube, they do not fully prevent the backward flow of the remaining content of the tube, or they are difficult to mount on the tube or be removed therefrom. Other drawbacks of prior art devices will become apparent from the following description.